U.S. patent number 9,679,306 [Application Number 13/294,748] was granted by the patent office on 2017-06-13 for live advertisement preview display and distribution.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Excalibur IP, LLC. The grantee listed for this patent is Vibha Bamba, Tarun Bansal, Andy Hwu, Ian Lin, Naga Viswanathan Malepati, Geoffrey Perez, Dean Quan, Ulises Robles, Joe Stampleman, Ameya Virkar. Invention is credited to Vibha Bamba, Tarun Bansal, Andy Hwu, Ian Lin, Naga Viswanathan Malepati, Geoffrey Perez, Dean Quan, Ulises Robles, Joe Stampleman, Ameya Virkar.
United States Patent |
9,679,306 |
Virkar , et al. |
June 13, 2017 |
Live advertisement preview display and distribution
Abstract
A live advertisement ("ad") preview may be used by an advertiser
and/or publisher to ensure that an ad is displayed correctly and to
maximize user interaction with the ad. The live ad preview may be
provided before the general public has access to the ad. The live
ad preview may include a display of the ad within a real-time
version of a destination web page. The live ad preview of the ad in
the destination web page may be distributed with a universal
resource locator ("URL") that may be distributed externally.
Inventors: |
Virkar; Ameya (Santa Clara,
CA), Quan; Dean (Millbrae, CA), Bansal; Tarun (Santa
Clara, CA), Stampleman; Joe (San Carlos, CA), Robles;
Ulises (Sunnyvale, CA), Hwu; Andy (San Jose, CA),
Perez; Geoffrey (San Jose, CA), Malepati; Naga
Viswanathan (San Marcos, CA), Bamba; Vibha (San
Francisco, CA), Lin; Ian (Foster City, CA) |
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Virkar; Ameya
Quan; Dean
Bansal; Tarun
Stampleman; Joe
Robles; Ulises
Hwu; Andy
Perez; Geoffrey
Malepati; Naga Viswanathan
Bamba; Vibha
Lin; Ian |
Santa Clara
Millbrae
Santa Clara
San Carlos
Sunnyvale
San Jose
San Jose
San Marcos
San Francisco
Foster City |
CA
CA
CA
CA
CA
CA
CA
CA
CA
CA |
US
US
US
US
US
US
US
US
US
US |
|
|
Assignee: |
Excalibur IP, LLC (Sunnyvale,
CA)
|
Family
ID: |
48281541 |
Appl.
No.: |
13/294,748 |
Filed: |
November 11, 2011 |
Prior Publication Data
|
|
|
|
Document
Identifier |
Publication Date |
|
US 20130124342 A1 |
May 16, 2013 |
|
Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q
30/0241 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
G06Q
30/00 (20120101); G06Q 30/02 (20120101) |
Field of
Search: |
;705/7.11-7.42,14.1-14.73 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Other References
"4 Ways to Create a Test Version of Your Website"
(www.whoishostingthis.com/blog/2011/02/10/launch-test-version-site/).
cited by examiner.
|
Primary Examiner: Miller; Alan S
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Brinks Gilson & Lione
Claims
We claim:
1. A system for advertisement preview comprising: a publisher
server providing a destination page that includes at least one
advertisement slot displaying at least one advertisement; an
advertisement server providing an advertisement; and a previewer
comprising: an analyzer that receives, from the publisher server, a
location for the destination page and determines whether the
advertisement, from the advertisement server, can be previewed in
at least one of the advertisement slots on the destination page; a
generator that generates a preview page that previews the
destination page with the advertisement displayed in at least one
of the advertisement slots on the destination page based on the
analysis, wherein the preview page is hosted and accessible at a
different location from the publisher server and from the
destination page, and displays a live version of the destination
page in real time; and a distributor that generates an indication
of the location for the preview page that is different from the
location of the destination page, wherein the distributor is
configured to transmit the location of the preview page.
2. The system of claim 1 wherein the analyzer compares sizes of the
at least one advertisement slots in the page with a size of the
advertisement, and the preview page displays the advertisement in
an ad slot that is a similar size as the size of the
advertisement.
3. A computerized method for previewing an advertisement
comprising: receiving an advertisement, from an advertiser server,
to be previewed; receiving an address of a destination page in
which the advertisement is to be previewed, wherein the
advertisement is separate from the destination page; accessing the
destination page , wherein the destination page comprises at least
one advertisement slot; comparing, with at least one processor, the
advertisement and the destination page to determine whether the
advertisement can be previewed on the destination page; inserting
the advertisement into at least one of the advertisement slots on a
preview page that displays a preview of the destination page with
the advertisement based on the comparison, wherein the preview page
utilizes a current version of the destination page retrieved from
the address of the destination page; and hosting the preview page
at an address different from the address of the destination page,
wherein accessing the address for the hosted preview page provides
the preview page while accessing the address of the destination
page provides the destination page.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein the received address of the
destination page comprises a web address and the destination page
comprises a web page.
5. The method of claim 4 wherein the accessing the destination page
comprises retrieving the destination page from the web address.
6. The method of claim 3 wherein the hosted preview address is an
external universal resource locator ("URL").
7. The method of claim 6 further comprising: sharing the external
URL, wherein a recipient of the external URL can view the preview
page.
8. The method of claim 7 wherein a viewing of the preview page from
the external URL results in a preview of a current version of the
destination page.
9. The method of claim 7 wherein the preview page is viewed by the
recipient upon the recipient clicking on the external URL.
10. The method of claim 9 wherein a cookie is generated prior to
the recipient viewing the preview page from the external URL.
11. The method of claim 10 wherein a cookie expiration may prevent
an updating of the preview page and an updating of the destination
page without another clicking of the external URL.
12. The method of claim 3 wherein the comparison of the
advertisement and the destination page comprises a comparison of
sizes of the at least one advertisements slot in the destination
page with a size of the advertisement.
13. The method of claim 12 wherein the advertisement is inserted
into the at least one of the advertisement slots that is a similar
size as the size of the advertisement.
14. A computerized method for distributing an advertisement preview
comprising: receiving an advertisement and a location for a
destination page with at least one advertisement slot in which the
advertisement is previewed; generating, with at least one
processor, a preview page of a live version of the destination page
with the advertisement in at least one of the at least one
advertisement slot in the destination page; generating, with at
least one processor, a location for the preview page that is
different from the location for the destination page, wherein the
live version of the destination page is provided from the location
for the destination page while the preview page is provided from
the location for the preview page; and sharing the location for the
preview page to allow the preview page to be viewed upon accessing
the location for the preview page and without accessing the
destination page.
15. The method of claim 14 wherein the location comprises a web
address and the destination page comprises a web page located at
the web address.
16. The method of claim 15 wherein the location for the preview
page comprises a web address that is different from the web address
for the destination page.
17. The method of claim 16 wherein the web address for the preview
page comprises a universal resource locator ("URL") and the sharing
comprises distributing the URL for the location of the preview
page.
18. The method of claim 14 wherein the generating of the preview
page comprises: accessing the destination page in which the
advertisement is to be previewed from the location for the
destination page; comparing the advertisement and the destination
page to determine whether the advertisement can be previewed on the
destination page; and inserting the advertisement into at least one
of the advertisement slots on the preview page of the destination
page based on the comparison.
19. The method of claim 18 wherein the comparison of the
advertisement and the destination page comprises a comparison of
sizes of the at least one advertisement slots in the destination
page with a size of the advertisement.
20. The method of claim 19 wherein the advertisement is inserted
into the at least one of the advertisement slots that is a similar
size as the size of the advertisement.
Description
BACKGROUND
Online advertising may be an important source of revenue for
enterprises engaged in electronic commerce. Processes associated
with technologies such as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) enable a web page to be
configured to display advertisements. Advertisements may commonly
be found on many web sites. Web site publishers, such as news and
sports web sites, may provide space for advertisements. The
publishers of these web sites may sell advertising space to
advertisers to defray the costs associated with operating the web
sites as well as to obtain additional revenue.
As the Internet has grown, the number and type of web sites
available for hosting advertisements has increased. This increased
diversity of publishers' web sites may result in different
opportunities for advertisers, but may also necessitate increased
review of advertisements by both publishers and advertisers to
minimize interference with the original content of the page and
maximize impressions and interactions with the displayed
advertisements.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The system and method may be better understood with reference to
the following drawings and description. Non-limiting and
non-exhaustive embodiments are described with reference to the
following drawings. The components in the drawings are not
necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon
illustrating the principles of the invention. In the drawings, like
referenced numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the
different views.
FIG. 1 is a diagram of an exemplary network system;
FIG. 2 is a diagram of an exemplary previewer;
FIG. 3 is an exemplary page;
FIG. 4 is a flowchart of preview generation;
FIG. 5 is a flowchart for receiving a distributed preview; and
FIG. 6 is an exemplary screen shot for generating a preview.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
By way of introduction, a live advertisement ("ad") preview may be
used by an advertiser and/or publisher to ensure the ad is
displayed correctly and to maximize user interaction with the ad.
The live ad preview may be used by a publisher to verify that the
ad does not interfere with the publisher's content on the web site,
while also maximizing revenue generated for the publisher from the
ads provided by the advertiser. The live ad preview may be
available before the general public has access to the ad. The
advertiser also would like to maximize user views and interactions
(e.g. clicks or conversions) of the ad. The live ad preview may
include a display of the ad within a real-time version of a
destination web page. The live ad preview of the ad in the
destination web page may be distributed with a universal resource
locator ("URL") that may be distributed externally.
Advertisers and publishers may want to view an ad or ad campaign on
a live destination web page and in the exact placement position in
which it is to be displayed to visually validate that the ad is
displayed and/or behaving correctly. The live preview may identify
whether an ad within a page may improperly interact with existing
content in the destination web page. For example, resizing the page
window or maximizing the window should still result in a correct
display of the ad. Likewise, the live ad preview may also
illustrate the reactions for hovering over and/or clicking on the
ad. The live ad preview may also be used to confirm there is no
overlap between the ad and the content of the destination web page.
For example, the ad may push down the destination web page content,
such that the content is not hiding any part of the ad, but all of
the content is displayed. The live ad preview may be used for rich
media ads that are inherently more complex than standard graphical
ads due to their complicated dynamic ad behaviors and page
interactions. Rich media ads are usually associated with larger ad
campaigns and the details may be important to the advertiser to
ensure that the visual of the rich media ad is as expected.
The preview system and methods described below allow a publisher
and/or advertiser to view a live ad preview within a destination
page, which may be referred to as a destination web page. The live
ad preview is displayed on a live or current version of the
destination page to provide as accurate a preview as possible.
Third parties may also be able to view the live ad preview through
the sharing of an external URL that provides a display of the live
ad preview over a network, such as the Internet. The live ad
preview may be utilized in the development of an ad campaign for
identifying ads to be included as part of that campaign. The live
ad preview may be utilized in selecting which ads from an ad
campaign are displayed on which pages.
Other systems, methods, features and advantages will be, or will
become, apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of
the following figures and detailed description. It is intended that
all such additional systems, methods, features and advantages be
included within this description, be within the scope of the
invention, and be protected by the following claims. Nothing in
this section should be taken as a limitation on those claims.
Further aspects and advantages are discussed below.
FIG. 1 depicts a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of an
exemplary advertising system 100. The advertising system 100 may
provide a platform for the live preview of advertisements in a
destination web page. In the advertising system 100, a user device
102 is coupled with a publisher server 106 through a network 104.
The publisher server 106 may be operated by and/or coupled with a
publisher 108, as well as being coupled with a publisher database
110. An advertiser server 122 coupled with an advertiser 124 may
also be coupled with an advertisement database 126. A previewer 112
may be coupled with the publisher server 106 and the advertiser
server 122. Herein, the phrase "coupled with" is defined to mean
directly connected to or indirectly connected through one or more
intermediate components. Such intermediate components may include
both hardware and software based components. Variations in the
arrangement and type of the components may be made without
departing from the spirit or scope of the claims as set forth
herein. Additional, different or fewer components may be provided.
Accordingly, the previewer 112 may be coupled through a network
(e.g. the network 104) with the publisher server 106 and the
advertiser server 122.
The user device 102 may be a computing device which allows a user
to connect to a network 104, such as the Internet. As described
below, the user devicer 102 may be a third party user who views a
live ad preview. In alternative embodiments, the user device 120 as
described herein may be how the publisher and/or advertiser 124
views the live ad preview. Examples of a user device include, but
are not limited to, a personal computer, personal digital assistant
("PDA"), a laptop, a smartphone, a cellular phone, a tablet, or
other electronic device. The user device 102 may include a
keyboard, keypad or a cursor control device, such as a mouse, or a
joystick, touch screen display, remote control or any other device
operative to view a live ad preview.
In one embodiment, the user device 102 is configured to request and
receive information from a network (e.g. the network 104, which may
be the Internet). The information may include web pages, such as
the live ad preview that is displayed externally with a URL. The
user device 102 may be configured to access other data/information
in addition to web pages over the network 104 using a web browser,
such as INTERNET EXPLORER.RTM. (sold by Microsoft Corp., Redmond,
Wash.) or FIREFOX.RTM. (provided by Mozilla). The data displayed by
the browser may include advertisements and there may be a live ad
preview of the ads with the data. In an alternative embodiment,
software programs other than web browsers may also display
advertisements received over the network 104 or from a different
source. As described below, the ads are displayed in a web page and
the live ad preview is for an ad in a destination web page.
In one embodiment, the publisher server 106 provides an interface
to a network 104 and/or provides its web pages over the network,
such as to the user device 102. The publisher server 106 may be a
web server that provides the user device 102 with pages (including
advertisements) that are requested over the network, such as by a
user of the user device 102. In particular, the publisher 108 may
provide a web page, or a series of web pages that are provided by
the publisher server 106 when requested from the user device 102.
For example, the publisher may be a news organization, such as
CNN.RTM. that provides all the pages and sites associated with
www.cnn.com. Accordingly, when the user device 102 requests a page
from www.cnn.com, that page is provide over the network 104 by the
publisher server 106. As described below, that page may include
advertising space or advertisement slots that are filled with
advertisements viewed with the page. The publisher server 106 may
be operated by a publisher 108 that maintains and oversees the
operation of the publisher server 106.
The publisher 108 may be any operator of a page displaying
advertisements that receives a payment from the advertisers of
those advertisements. The publisher 108 may oversee the publisher
server 106 by receiving advertisements from an advertiser server
122 that are displayed in pages (e.g. a destination web page)
provided by the publisher server 106. In one embodiment, a
previewer 112 may be used by the publisher 108 to view a preview of
what a particular ad may look like on one its web pages.
The publisher database 110 may be coupled with the publisher server
106 and may store the publisher's pages or data that is provided by
the publisher server 106. The pages that are stored may have ad
slots for displaying advertisements. The publisher database 110 may
include records or logs of at least a subset of the requests for
data/pages and ads submitted to the publisher server 106. In one
example, the publisher database 110 may include a history of
Internet browsing data related to the pages provided by the
publisher server 106. The publisher database 110 may store
advertisements from a number of advertisers, such as the advertiser
124. In addition, the publisher database 110 may store records on
the advertisements that are shown and the resulting impressions,
clicks, and/or actions taken for those advertisements. The data
related to advertisement impressions, clicks and resulting actions
may be stored in either the publisher database 110 and/or an
advertiser database 126.
The advertiser server 122 may provide advertisements for display in
web pages, such as the publisher's pages. In one embodiment, the
advertiser server 122 is coupled with the publisher server 106 for
providing ads on the publisher's web pages. The advertiser 124 may
be any operator of the advertiser server 122 for providing
advertisements. The advertisements may relate to products and/or
services provided by the advertiser 124. The advertiser 124 may pay
the publisher 108 for advertising space on the publisher's page or
pages. The advertiser 124 may oversee the advertiser server 122 by
providing advertisements to the publisher server 106. The
advertiser 124 may pay the publisher 108 for each impression,
click, and/or conversion from the ads displayed on the publisher's
pages.
The previewer 112 may provide a live preview of ad in a destination
web page. In one embodiment, a live ad preview refers to a preview
of an ad in a real-time or near real-time version of a web page. In
other words, the ad is previewed in a live web page. However, the
web page may not be live in the sense that the ad views, clicks,
and conversions are not monitored and accounted for since the ad
display is just a preview. Also, the web page preview with the ad
may not be publicly accessible. In other words, the destination web
page for which the live ad preview is created may not modify the
actual destination web page. The live ad preview utilizes the
current version of the destination web page for the preview.
The previewer 112 may create a URL for sharing the live ad preview
externally as discussed below. The previewer 112 may be coupled
with the publisher server 106 and the advertiser server 122 for
generating a live ad preview of an ad from the advertiser server
122 in a destination web page from the publisher server 106. In one
embodiment, the previewer 112 may be controlled by the publisher
108 and may be a part of the publisher server 106. Alternatively,
the previewer 112 may be controlled by the advertiser 124 and may
be a part of the advertiser server 122, or may be part of a
separate entity.
The previewer 112 may receive advertisements from a number of
different advertisers, such as the advertiser 124. Likewise, the
previewer 112 may receive destination web pages from a number of
different publishers, such as the publisher 108. The previewer 112
may be utilized by the different advertisers for testing different
publishers' pages for displaying their ads. Likewise, the previewer
112 may be utilized by the different publishers for identifying
advertisers' ads that display best on their pages.
The previewer 112 may be a computing device for generating the live
ad preview. The previewer 112 may include a processor 120, memory
118, software 116 and an interface 114. The previewer 112 may be a
separate component from the publisher server 106 and/or the
advertiser server 122, or may be combined as a single component or
device.
The interface 114 may communicate with any of the user device 102,
the publisher server 106, and/or the advertiser server 122. The
interface 114 may include a user interface configured to allow a
user and/or administrator to interact with any of the components of
the previewer 112. For example, the administrator and/or user may
be able to configure the settings and features of the previewer
112.
The processor 120 in the previewer 112 may include a central
processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a digital
signal processor (DSP) or other type of processing device. The
processor 120 may be a component in any one of a variety of
systems. For example, the processor 120 may be part of a standard
personal computer or a workstation. The processor 120 may be one or
more general processors, digital signal processors, application
specific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays,
servers, networks, digital circuits, analog circuits, combinations
thereof, or other now known or later developed devices for
analyzing and processing data. The processor 120 may operate in
conjunction with a software program, such as code generated
manually (i.e., programmed).
The processor 120 may be coupled with a memory 118, or the memory
118 may be a separate component. The interface 114 and/or the
software 116 may be stored in the memory 118. The memory 118 may
include, but is not limited to, computer readable storage media
such as various types of volatile and non-volatile storage media,
including random access memory, read-only memory, programmable
read-only memory, electrically programmable read-only memory,
electrically erasable read-only memory, flash memory, magnetic tape
or disk, optical media and the like. The memory 118 may include a
random access memory for the processor 120. Alternatively, the
memory 118 may be separate from the processor 120, such as a cache
memory of a processor, the system memory, or other memory. The
memory 118 may be an external storage device or database for
storing recorded ad or user data. Examples include a hard drive,
compact disc ("CD"), digital video disc ("DVD"), memory card,
memory stick, floppy disc, universal serial bus ("USB") memory
device, or any other device operative to store ad or user data. The
memory 118 is operable to store instructions executable by the
processor 120.
The functions, acts or tasks illustrated in the figures or
described herein may be performed by the programmed processor
executing the instructions stored in the memory 118. The functions,
acts or tasks are independent of the particular type of instruction
set, storage media, processor or processing strategy and may be
performed by software, hardware, integrated circuits, firm-ware,
micro-code and the like, operating alone or in combination.
Likewise, processing strategies may include multiprocessing,
multitasking, parallel processing and the like. The processor 120
is configured to execute the software 116. The software 116 may
include instructions for generating a live ad preview.
The interface 114 may be a user input device or a display. The
interface 114 may include a keyboard, keypad or a cursor control
device, such as a mouse, or a joystick, touch screen display,
remote control or any other device operative to interact with the
previewer 112. The interface 114 may include a display coupled with
the processor 120 and configured to display an output from the
processor 120. The display may be a liquid crystal display (LCD),
an organic light emitting diode (OLED), a flat panel display, a
solid state display, a cathode ray tube (CRT), a projector, a
printer or other now known or later developed display device for
outputting determined information. The display may act as an
interface for the user to see the functioning of the processor 120,
or as an interface with the software 116 for providing input
parameters. In particular, the interface 114 may allow a user to
interact with the previewer 112 to view or modify the generation of
a live ad preview.
The present disclosure contemplates a computer-readable medium that
includes instructions or receives and executes instructions
responsive to a propagated signal, so that a device connected to a
network can communicate voice, video, audio, images or any other
data over a network. The interface 114 may be used to provide the
instructions over the network via a communication port. The
communication port may be created in software or may be a physical
connection in hardware. The communication port may be configured to
connect with a network, external media, display, or any other
components in system 100, or combinations thereof. The connection
with the network may be a physical connection, such as a wired
Ethernet connection or may be established wirelessly as discussed
below. Likewise, the connections with other components of the
system 100 may be physical connections or may be established
wirelessly.
Any of the components in the advertising system 100 may be coupled
with one another through a network, including but not limited to
the network 104. For example, the previewer 112 may be coupled with
the publisher server 106 and/or the advertiser server 122 through a
network. As another example, the advertiser database 126 may be
coupled with the publisher server 106 and/or the previewer 112
through a network. Accordingly, any of the components in the
advertising system 100 may include communication ports configured
to connect with a network.
The network or networks that may connect any of the components in
the advertising system 100 to enable communication of data between
the devices may include wired networks, wireless networks, or
combinations thereof. The wireless network may be a cellular
telephone network, a network operating according to a standardized
protocol such as IEEE 802.11, 802.16, 802.20, published by the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., or WiMax
network. Further, the network(s) may be a public network, such as
the Internet, a private network, such as an intranet, or
combinations thereof, and may utilize a variety of networking
protocols now available or later developed including, but not
limited to TCP/IP based networking protocols. The network(s) may
include one or more of a local area network (LAN), a wide area
network (WAN), a direct connection such as through a Universal
Serial Bus (USB) port, and the like, and may include the set of
interconnected networks that make up the Internet. The network(s)
may include any communication method or employ any form of
machine-readable media for communicating information from one
device to another. For example, the ad server 122 or the publisher
server 106 may provide advertisements and/or content to the user
device 102 over a network, such as the network 104.
The publisher server 106, the publisher database 110, the previewer
112, the advertiser server 122, the advertiser database 126, and/or
the user device 102 may represent computing devices of various
kinds. Such computing devices may generally include any device that
is configured to perform computation and that is capable of sending
and receiving data communications by way of one or more wired
and/or wireless communication interfaces, such as interface 114.
For example, the user device 102 may be configured to execute a
browser application that employs HTTP to request information, such
as a web page, from the publisher server 106. The present
disclosure contemplates the use of a computer-readable medium that
includes instructions or receives and executes instructions
responsive to a propagated signal, so that any device connected to
a network can communicate voice, video, audio, images or any other
data over a network.
FIG. 2 is a diagram of an exemplary previewer 112. The previewer
112 may receive a destination web page from the publisher server
106 and an ad from the advertiser server 122. The previewer 112 may
include a receiver for receiving the ad and the destination web
page. The destination web page may be entered as the page within
which the ad is previewed. The live ad preview displays the
received ad within a current version of the destination web
page.
An analyzer 202 may analyze the ad and the destination web page to
determine a fit for the ad on the destination web page. In one
embodiment, the size of the ad may be matched with the size of
available ad slots on the destination web page. Assuming a fit, the
ad may be combined or inserted into the destination web page by the
generator 204. The generator 204 may also be referred to as a
combiner that combines the ad with the destination web page. The
resulting combination is a live ad preview of the ad in the
destination web page. The live ad preview may include an actual
display of the ad within a live page. The in-page preview may be
activated by selecting an ad for display and inputting a web
address for a live web page. The ad is then displayed within the
live web page for a live preview. The live preview may be displayed
within a frame of the page, or may be displayed as a new
window.
In alternative embodiments, multiple ads may be previewed for a
single destination web page. The live ad preview may display each
of the ads within the destination web page, which may be displayed
through pagination on a single page. In alternative embodiments,
there may be a button or option to change the ad or ads that are
previewed on the destination web page to make it easier to view
multiple ads within a single page.
The live ad preview from the generator 204 may be shared by the
distributor 206. In particular, the distributor may generate a web
address or a universal resource locator ("URL") that allows the
live ad preview to be viewed externally. The URL may be emailed or
otherwise transferred to allow for sharing of the live ad preview.
The URL may be hosted by a different host than the publisher 108.
The actual destination web page from the publisher may remain at
its original web address, but another host may generate the live ad
preview using the destination web page at a different URL. The live
ad preview may not be active in that there is no accounting of ad
impressions, clicks, and conversions since it is a preview. The
sharing may be for an inactive, but real-time preview of an ad in
the destination web page.
There may be multiple types of ads that provided to the previewer
112 from the advertiser server 122. The available ads may include
image, audio, video, animated, or other rich media ads. The ads may
utilize Adobe.RTM. Flash for displaying animations or other
movement. A floating or hover ad may displayed that appears to be
on top of the content of the destination web page. In other
embodiments, the ads may be a storyboard ad that is part of an
overall campaign that displays different ads in different places at
different places to convey an overall theme or story. Storyboard
ads may be a sequence or series of ads that are displayed.
Likewise, companion ads may be included that are designed to be
displayed together on a single page, but in different locations.
For example, companion ads may include a banner ad and a side bar
ad that are displayed at the same time and present the same or a
similar message. Companion ads may be storyboard ads that are
related.
Rich media ads may expand or contract as part of the visual display
of the ad. For example, an ad may expand to partially and
temporarily hover/float over another part of the destination web
page. The live ad preview may illustrate where the ad may hover and
for how long the hover lasts. Rich media ads may interact with or
push the content. For example, a car ad may travel across the
screen and crash into existing content. Testing of this rich media
content may not work by just overlaying the ad on a page, but by
generating a live ad preview that utilizes a current version of the
page, the interaction of the ad with the content may be tested. The
ads may include third party advertisements that may originate from
a different advertising network or host. For example, the service
that one publisher uses to display an ad may be different from
another publisher, but the live ad preview may be universal in that
it works regardless of which service a publisher uses for
displaying ads.
FIG. 3 illustrates an example page, such as the destination page.
The destination page may be a web page available via the Internet,
or may be a page or screen from any software program. The content
302 may be displayed at or near the center of the page 300. Page
300 may include multiple advertisements ("ads") displayed around
the main content 302. The content 302 that may be displayed may be
an image, video, audio, other multimedia, text or any other visual
display that may be included in a page. The live ad preview may
illustrate one or more ads into the page 300 to verify that the ad
displays properly and that the content is not hindered by the test
ad. FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary screen shot of the interface
used for generating the live ad preview.
In one embodiment, there may be two top advertising slots 304, 306
for displaying advertisements at the top of the screen. The top
advertising slots 304, 306 may each be of a particular size and
require a particular size ad. The ad size may be measured by
pixels. Additionally, there may be two side advertising slots 308,
310 displaying advertisement at the side of the screen. The side
advertising slots 308, 310 may each be of a particular size and
require a particular size ad. Ad slots may also be referred to as
an advertising location or just an advertisement. FIG. 3 is merely
exemplary of a screen or page displaying ads.
The ad slots may be of different sizes, such that the ad that is to
be previewed may need to be analyzed and matched with at least one
of the ad slots based on size. In one embodiment, if the ad size
does not match an ad slot within the destination web page, an error
message may be generated. The ad can be replaced or resized for the
destination page or a different page may be selected. In the
exemplary page 300, there are four available ad slots with four
different sizes of ads. A preview of an ad that is the same size as
one of those slots may only be previewed in the ad slot with the
correct size. If there are multiple ad slots in a page of the same
size, then an ad that matches that size may be previewed in each of
the multiple ad slots.
In another embodiment, the orientation and location destination may
also be compared. For example, the ad may be designed for either
portrait or landscape viewing, so in addition to matching the size,
the orientation may also need to be matched. Likewise, a particular
rich media ad may only be designed for the left side of the screen,
so the position or destination location may also need to be matched
for the ad.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart of preview generation. The ad to be previewed
is received in block 402. An address for the destination page is
received in block 404. Once the instruction is received for
generating a live ad preview using the received ad on the
destination page, an external universal resource locator ("URL")
address that identifies a location for the live ad preview is
generated in block 406. FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary screen shot
where a user inputs the destination page address for generating the
live ad preview. The available ad slots for the destination page
may be analyzed in block 408. Appropriate ad slots on the
destination page may be identified for the ad to be placed into for
the preview in block 410. The analysis and identification may be
based on size or may be based on the type of ad. The identified ad
slot or slots in the destination page are then filled by the ad in
block 412. A live ad preview is generated that shows the ad
displayed in the identified ad slot of the destination page in
block 414. The live ad preview may be shared through the
distribution of the external URL for the live ad preview in block
416. The receipt of the URL and display of the live ad preview from
the URL is described with respect to FIG. 5.
The live ad preview system may include a share function that allows
external access to a live ad preview. Other users may be able to
quickly and easily view a live ad preview externally. The share
function of the live preview may generate an external URL that
displays the ad within a live version of the destination web page.
The URL may be hosted within another domain. For example, the URL
may be www.adpreview.host.com/uniqueURL where the unique URL
includes an identification of the ad to be displayed and the
destination web page in which the ad is displayed. In another
example, the destination URL may be encoded in the external URL
along with the ad identification (ad-id):
www.adpreview.host.com/uniqueURL&ad-id. The host may be the
provider of the live preview software and/or the ad facilitator for
connecting ads with publishers. For example, Yahoo! Inc. is one
example of a host and may provide the live preview
functionality.
Live ad preview may allow a user to enter any URL and receive a new
URL that will allow them to preview the ads on the site of the
provided URL. The new URL may be referred to as an external URL
because it is a different URL than the provided or source URL. This
URL may be available for any user for a configurable amount of time
and may not require the viewer to be a user of the advertising
system.
Although the preview may be live because it is shown within a live
web page, it may not be publicly available or publicly displayed.
In other words, if the live URL that is used is
www.sports.yahoo.com, the live ad preview displays the ad within
the current version of the page. However, other users going to
www.sports.yahoo.com would not see the previewed ad and the page
available to the public would be unchanged. The live preview allows
for a more accurate preview of an ad on a particular page or
pages.
The external URL may be encoded or formatted in many different ways
in order to allow a third party to view a live preview of an ad by
clicking on the external URL. The external URL may just identify
the ad and the destination URL and the host can utilize that
information for generating the live ad preview. The external URL
may be encoded with a signature.
The signature may be encoded string of information that prevents
tampering or changing of the URL from its original content and
allows tracking for purposes of enforcing expiration dates.
Information contained in the signature may include version,
expiration date, ad identification, ad sizes, and/or
vendor/publisher/advertiser identification.
The external URL may have an expiration date after which it becomes
inactive and unavailable. For example, the external URL may be
valid for up to one week. Attempts to access the external URL after
the expiration time period may result in an error message that the
ad preview that you have requested is no longer available. In one
embodiment, as discussed below, a cookie may be used to further
limit a time period for which an external user can view the live ad
preview.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart for receiving a distributed preview. The
previewer generates a live ad preview that is accessible through an
external URL as described above. The URL for the live ad preview
may be received by a third party in block 502. In block 504, the
URL is clicked on or activated for displaying the live ad preview.
When an external URL is generated and distributed, a viewer of that
URL may have a cookie that is automatically set as in block 506.
The cookie may be used for the live preview of the ad. In one
embodiment, the cookie expires in a short amount of time (e.g. one
minute) so that the page cannot be refreshed. Since the page cannot
be refreshed (after the cookie expiration) the viewer must click on
the external URL again to invoke the preview. In addition, the
cookie may automatically expire when the window/page the displays
the live ad preview is closed. The live ad preview is displayed in
the browser in block 508. In block 510, at the end of a session or
after an expiration period, the cookie expires and live ad preview
cannot be refreshed. In order for the third party to re-view the
live ad preview a new external URL may need to be generated and
received as in block 502. Before the URL has expired, the third
party may be able to reactivate the external URL to view the live
ad preview. However, once the URL expires, a new external URL may
be needed to view the live ad preview.
FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary screen shot for generating a live
ad preview. The content 302 is illustrated with an ad slot 308 that
is available for ad display. The content shown is from the test URL
602. The test URL 602 is the live page that is previewed with the
ad. When the test URL 602 is entered, the generate button 604
previews the ad in a live or current version of the page located at
the test URL 602. In particular, the activation of the generate
button 604 may triggers steps 406-414 in FIG. 4. In one embodiment,
the live ad preview may be displayed in a new window upon clicking
the new window button 606. Activation of the new window button 606
may be similar to the generate button, but the live ad preview may
be shown in a different window. The new window may also be a pop-up
window for displaying the live ad preview. The share button 608
displays or provides an external URL that can be transmitted for
allowing viewing of the live ad preview externally. As discussed,
the external URL may have an expiration period after which it is no
longer valid.
A "computer-readable medium," "machine readable medium,"
"propagated-signal" medium, and/or "signal-bearing medium" may
comprise any device that includes, stores, communicates,
propagates, or transports software for use by or in connection with
an instruction executable system, apparatus, or device. The
machine-readable medium may selectively be, but not limited to, an
electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or
semiconductor system, apparatus, device, or propagation medium. A
non-exhaustive list of examples of a machine-readable medium would
include: an electrical connection "electronic" having one or more
wires, a portable magnetic or optical disk, a volatile memory such
as a Random Access Memory "RAM", a Read-Only Memory "ROM", an
Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EPROM or Flash memory), or
an optical fiber. A machine-readable medium may also include a
tangible medium upon which software is printed, as the software may
be electronically stored as an image or in another format (e.g.,
through an optical scan), then compiled, and/or interpreted or
otherwise processed. The processed medium may then be stored in a
computer and/or machine memory.
In an alternative embodiment, dedicated hardware implementations,
such as application specific integrated circuits, programmable
logic arrays and other hardware devices, can be constructed to
implement one or more of the methods described herein. Applications
that may include the apparatus and systems of various embodiments
can broadly include a variety of electronic and computer systems.
One or more embodiments described herein may implement functions
using two or more specific interconnected hardware modules or
devices with related control and data signals that can be
communicated between and through the modules, or as portions of an
application-specific integrated circuit. Accordingly, the present
system encompasses software, firmware, and hardware
implementations.
The illustrations of the embodiments described herein are intended
to provide a general understanding of the structure of the various
embodiments. The illustrations are not intended to serve as a
complete description of all of the elements and features of
apparatus and systems that utilize the structures or methods
described herein. Many other embodiments may be apparent to those
of skill in the art upon reviewing the disclosure. Other
embodiments may be utilized and derived from the disclosure, such
that structural and logical substitutions and changes may be made
without departing from the scope of the disclosure. Additionally,
the illustrations are merely representational and may not be drawn
to scale. Certain proportions within the illustrations may be
exaggerated, while other proportions may be minimized. Accordingly,
the disclosure and the figures are to be regarded as illustrative
rather than restrictive.
* * * * *
References